Celebrating the Sidemen

by Dan Dickenson
College of Charleston Magazine
Winter 2008

Aficionados of jazz know that the work in this musical genre is defined as much by the style and personality of the musicians as it is by the arrangement of musical notes. In fact, jazz tunes aren’t supposed to sound like a particular song, but like the individual artists, which is why the personalities behind the music are so integral to the sound itself, and essentially why the work that Karen Chandler and her colleague Jack McCray are conducting is so crucial.

Associate professor of arts management, pianist and arts entrepreneur, Chandler is a font of energy who in recent years has directed much of her talent and effort toward reclaiming an important aspect of Charleston’s musical heritage. The Charleston Jazz Initiative (CJI) grew out of an event she helped organize four years ago, which was a part of a semester-long

retrospective on jazz. When that effort unveiled significant links between locally trained musicians and jazz luminaries such as Duke Ellington, Chandler and McCray – a local writer and longtime jazz devotee – joined forces to follow the threads.

Associate professor of arts management, pianist and arts entrepreneur, Chandler is a font of energy who in recent years has directed much of her talent and effort toward reclaiming an important aspect of Charleston’s musical heritage. The Charleston Jazz Initiative (CJI) grew out of an event she helped organize four years ago, which was a part of a semester-long retrospective on jazz. When that effort unveiled significant links between locally trained musicians and jazz luminaries such as Duke Ellington, Chandler and McCray – a local writer and longtime jazz devotee – joined forces to follow the threads.

“Right away, we decided to make the Jenkins Orphanage the focus of this research,” she explains. From 1894 through 1961, the Jenkins Orphanage (first at 20 Franklin St. in downtown Charleston and then in North Charleston) trained African American youngsters to read and play all kinds of music.  Almost immediately, bands from the orphanage began touring the U.S. and even Europe. But Chandler and McCray’s research indicates that these students weren’t taught jazz. Elements of that music simply seeped into the instruction through runaway orphans who returned to Charleston with the latest jazz techniques. As influential as those stylings were, it was the solid musicianship that so many students learned at the orphanage which led them to make their mark on the world of jazz.

CJI’s mission – to serve as a repository for everything that Chandler and McCray can unearth about Charleston’s jazz legacy – is almost wholly dependent upon oral histories. Little has been written about Charleston’s jazzmen, and few recordings of their music remain.  But Chandler isn’t deterred. On the contrary, she’s enthused. “Musicians and musicologists are going to write endlessly about the music,” she contends, “but our interest is in getting to know who these people were. We’re interested in who Freddie Green [famed American Swing rhythm guitarist for Count Basie] used to go crabbing with as much as we are his intricate guitar technique. It’s one thing to document the music, but it’s really more telling to see these men in the true context of their lives. And, local voices –the very stewards of the work we study –are essential to fully understand this history.”

Chandler describes CJI’s work as community scholarship, something she says places social history at the core of methodological inquiry. “We didn’t want this project to be purely academic,” she explains. “It’s really a town-gown partnership. The only reason I was interested in starting this was because of the potential of that special relationship.  When you partner with the community around you, a lot can be accomplished.” Along with CJI’s two other principals –music director Quentin Baxter ’98 and videographer Tony Bell ’91 – Chandler and McCray are beginning to see the fruits of their efforts. She edited CJI’s first publication, Charleston: A Cradle of Jazz, and had a peer-reviewed article published in the Journal of Arts Management, Law and Society, while McCray has just published a book (Charleston Jazz). New oral histories are being logged on a regular basis, a number of important artifacts have been donated and the CJI website (www.charlestonjazz.net) keeps devouring content. “We’ve given ourselves until 2010 to complete this work,” she says, “and it’s definitely having an impact.” According to Chandler, jazz scholars often remark to her, “I didn’t think about Charleston in regard to the heritage of jazz, but I do now.”

Perhaps more important is the impact at home. CJI recently helped orchestrate an important milestone for the orphanage (now renamed the Jenkins Institute of Children) – its first-ever gala. But even more significant is news that the directors of the institute are investigating the possibility of starting a music conservatory. “If there’s one outcome for this initiative that I could have hoped for,” says Chandler, “that would be it.” Editor’s note: The painting seen behind Chandler was inspired by the Charleston Jazz Initiative. Upon learning about the city’s connection to jazz through the CJI, local Charleston artist Jahsun presented this oil-on-canvas painting, entitled “CJ” to Chandler, McCray and Baxter.

Celebrating the Sidemen